Title: Reminiscence and nostalgia: designing feasible solutions for dementia care

Authors: Silvia Maria Gramegna

Addresses: Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Candiani 72, 20158 Milano, Italy

Abstract: The recreation of nostalgic feelings and memories has deep psychological implications for human beings, as it can increase self-esteem, social cohesion and connectedness. Applying this approach to dementia care may enable designers and researchers to reframe the use of memories to generate new methods of intervening on/in the interiors of care homes. It suggests a therapeutic use of nostalgia in the development of environmental solutions for dementia care units. Nostalgia and archetypical elements can be viewed as the active component of therapeutic success in reminiscence therapy in dementia care home design.

Keywords: dementia; interior design; non-pharmacological therapies; NPTs; nostalgia; reminiscence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2022.121144

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2022 Vol.16 No.2, pp.199 - 217

Received: 18 Feb 2020
Accepted: 04 Aug 2020
Published online: 28 Feb 2022 *

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